A highly critical report into the effectiveness of Humberside Police published by HMIC today (Thursday) is a damning indictment of Humberside Police under current Police and Crime Commissioner Matthew Grove, according to Labour PCC candidate Keith Hunter.

The “PEEL: Police Effectiveness 2015 national overview” report published this morning declares that Humberside Police is graded “requires improvement” overall, and “requires improvement” in three of the four categories assessed.

The Force “requires improvement” in “Preventing crime and anti social behaviour”, “Investigating crime and managing offenders” and “protecting vulnerable people.”

Only in “tackling serious and organized crime” did the Force score a “good” grade.

This latest damning verdict on the performance of Humberside Police under Matthew Grove comes just a couple of months since the Force was graded ‘inadequate’ in an assessment of its efficiency.

“This latest report from HMIC is hugely disappointing for resident of the Humberside Police area. It is only a couple of months since the force was graded as ‘inadequate’ in respect of its efficiency and now it is rated as ‘requiring improvement’ in its overall effectiveness.

“Of particular concern is that fact that Matthew Grove’s priority area of ‘protecting vulnerable people’ is one of the areas that specifically requires improvement. When that area was examined by HMIC and reported on separately in December, Matthew Grove buried the report and did not make public the fact that the force had been rated as requiring improvement.

“In that report the Inspector stated “the force’s ability to investigate and safeguard vulnerable victims is a cause for concern for HMIC”. The PCC should be on the side of the public, not hiding inconvenient facts from them. Grove has failed the force and he is failing the people he is meant to represent – this report is an indictment on his record as PCC.

“The only aspect of the force to be rated as ‘good ‘ was the response to organised crime which, coincidently, is the area least affected so far by the changes Grove has overseen.

“It should not go unnoticed that the only force to be rated as ‘outstanding’ is a Force with an ex-senior police officer representing the Labour party as the PCC. That is a winning combination we hope will soon be repeated in Humberside to kick-start the recovery from this disastrous period of stewardship under Matthew Grove.”